The Ohio Roundtable has appealed a Common Pleas Court ruling that said it didn’t have legal standing to sue the state and others over the 2011 law that legalized racetrack video lottery terminals.
The public policy group filed its appeal June 28 in Common Pleas Court in Franklin County. The Ohio Roundtable had 30 days to appeal; the ruling by Judge Timothy Horton was issued May 30.
Horton ruled the Ohio Roundtable did not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit against the defendants that included Gov. John Kasich, the Ohio Lottery Commission, and the Ohio Casino Control Commission, among others. Among the claims made by members of the Ohio Roundtable were they would be harmed by the casinos for various reasons that were rejected by the judge.
"Throughout the pleadings and oral arguments, the plaintiffs have offered little more than bare assertions of harm or injury," Horton wrote in the May 30 ruling.
Thus far only one Ohio racetrack, Scioto Downs in Columbus, has opened a VLT parlor. Other tracks have been waiting for resolution of the legal challenge; it remains to be seen how quickly the court will rule on the Ohio Roundtable appeal.